the mystery of life and the smelly socks of joey sparks from regal park Jan Paul Schutten The Mystery of Life and the Smelly Socks of Joey Spark from Regal Park — Illustrated by Floor Rieder —

Gottmer Publishing Group Haarlem, The Netherlands TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE 10 Before We Really Get Started, There’s This 11 SECTION 1: WONDERS, BRAIN TWISTERS, MYSTERIES AND YOU 13 why does the paramecium (slipper animalcule) deserve a standing ovation? 14 What can a slipper animalcule do that the smartest robot can’t? 15 simple cells? 16 How many cells does it take to build a body? 17 What kinds of stuff happens in your body to keep you healthy? 17 minuscule miracles 18 What do bacteria look like? 19 How do bacteria taste? 19 Do bacteria also deserve a round of applause? 19 the black monster and death 20 What is sadder than death? 21 Is there anything that works better than nature? 21 and now: one more wonder 22 Where did you come from? 22 Who made nature work so perfectly? 23 Who can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt how life originated? 23 SECTION 2: HOW OLD IS PLANET EARTH? 25 memorizing two, dividing six, multiplying by three… then god must have been finished at six o’clock 26 Four thousand or four billion years before christ? 27 How did seashells end up on top of a mountain? 27 how can you determine how old a stone is?28 Exactly how old is the earth? 29 Does stone decay or spoil? 29 How did we go about proving how old the earth is? 29 how old is the universe? 30 How is the age of the universe calculated? 31 How long does it take a ray of sunshine to travel to earth? 31 SECTION 3: THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING IN 1609 WORDS 33 how did the universe come to be? 34 Did atoms and molecules always exist? 35 How do you build a planet? 35 Where did the moon come from? 35 what was a day on earth like eons ago? 36 How come life originated in the sea? 37

— 5 How long did it take until there was life on earth? 37 How can you make life in a test tube? 73 And how long have people existed? 37 What is dna and why do you always come across it in tv cop shows? 73 Do you know everything there is to know now? 37 how do you build a joey spark from regal park 74 SECTION 4: THE BEST SCIENTIFIC IDEA OF ALL TIME 39 Which came first: the chicken or the egg? 75 what is the theory of evolution exactly and who came up with it? 40 Has the chicken vs. The egg question been resolved? 75 A doctor who is afraid of blood? 41 how can you ‘breath life’ into matter all by yourself? 76 Where did all these species come from? 41 Is salt alive? 77 how do you make a seventy kilo dog? 42 what did the first life on earth look like? 78 Do you have the same ancestors as an earwig? 4 3 Looking at creatures older than dinosaurs? 79 Which animals are survivors and which die? 43 Does the earth ever have a weight problem? 79 how do you turn one finch into two finches? 44 Did life on earth actually begin on earth? 79 Does all life on earth have a common ancestor? 45 SECTION 8: SURVIVING IN A PRIMORDIAL OCEAN 81 Why did it take Darwin twenty years to write his well-known book? 45 where did life on earth actually begin? 82 did people think darwin was crazy? 46 (1) Did life begin in boiling pools of mud and water? 83 Does everyone believe Darwin now? 47 (2) Or was it actually on the ocean floor? 84 Do all species constantly improve? 47 (3) Or did it begin deep underground? 84 SECTION 5: A BRIEF LOOK AT EVOLUTION 49 was there anything new under the sun? 86 how does a new species come to exist? 50 Mole holes millions of years old?! 87 Why do some species evolve faster than others? 51 Who were the biggest polluters on earth? 87 huh? how is it suddenly possible that not the best and fittest survive? 52 how does a bacterium turn into a blue whale? 88 Does a tree want to be tall? 53 What happens when you put a sponge in a meat grinder? 89 Why do rabbits have bad eyes? 53 how to make a plaster cast of a big blob of spit? 90 did evolution make a mistake? 54 How does a jellyfish become a fossil? 91 Are women crazy? 55 what inventions have made life what it is today? 92 If you’re a bird how can you fake looking bigger? 55 How can you survive without a rear end? 93 why do women want to have the children of murderous morons? 56 How can you survive without sex? 93 Why does a peacock have such a long tail? 57 how has sex changed the world? 94 How come the Irish elk is extinct? 57 Is it possible for people to survive without killing each other? 9 4 why aren’t people perfect, in spite of millions of years of evolution? 58 what would a zoo from 550 million years ago have looked like? 96 How come women get more beautiful by the day and men don’t? 59 what was the most successful animal in the past? 98 How do you become a super rabbit? 59 So who wiped out the trilobite? 99 SECTION 6: IT’S ALL ABOUT FAMILY 61 which marine animal do we originate from? 100 what are genes and why do they rule the earth? 62 Are we really descendants of the slime mold? 101 Did Darwin get it wrong? 63 SECTION 9: HALF MAN - HALF FISH 103 Which animal actually wants to die? 63 how do you change from a fish to a four-footed animal? 104 why are genes so important? 64 How special is a fish with lungs? 105 Will Leo Messi’s son also be a brilliant football player when he grows up? 65 How do gills turn into lungs? 105 What do genes actually do? 65 And how does a fish develop legs? 105 why is dying sometimes the sensible thing to do? 66 and before we go any further, my humble apologies 106 Is there anything more important than your own life? 6 6 Why do we use fossils to write on a blackboard? 107 SECTION 7: HOW DID LIFE ON EARTH ORIGINATE 69 If you dig deep enough, will you always come across fossils? 107 what is the secret of frankenstein? 70 why do you find the same types of stones in america as in africa? 108 What is life? 71 Did palm trees ever grow in the Arctic Circle? 109 Where did the first living creature on earth come from? 71 Were mammoths able to swim from the netherlands to england? 109 what was the secret of the first life on earth? 72 How old is the paw print of Tyrannosaurus rex? 109

6 — — 7 where can you find the best fossils? 110 Long live nature? 137 How do you find amphibian fossils or fish fossils? 110 Why doesn’t a shark get the hiccups, but you do? 137 What tools do you need to find fossils? 110 Why do fish work on our nerves? 138 And..? Has the fossil to end all fossils already been found? 111 Why do we get goosebumps? 138 does joey spark really have something in common with a shark? 112 ‘and how about that bombardier beetle? or the eye?’ 140 Does Joey Spark from regal park have Tiktaalik’s arm? 113 Are there actually beetles that have their own anti-aircraft guns? 140 Why does a horse’s hoof look like a person’s hand? 113 What is the secret of the bombardier beetle? 141 Do we hear with shark gills? 113 Why is the bombardier beetle proof of evolution? 141 why did you once look like a mackerel? 114 What’s the point of having weapons in paradise? 141 Why do all ‘babies’ look alike? 115 what’s wrong with your eyes? 142 Where does that funny groove under your nose come from? 115 The reason our eyes work so well 142 Why does Tweety have such a big head? 115 Where did your eyes come from? 142 how does a cell know how to grow into a tooth, nose, or toe? 116 How would you design an eye? 143 What can you best compare dna to? 116 Are we not allowed to see well? 143 Can the cells in your body talk to each other? 117 SECTION 11: FROM MOUSE TO MAN 145 How do you make a bug with extra wings? 117 what did our ancestors look like? 146 what can a virus tell us about the past? 118 Which animal do you resemble most? 147 What happens when someone has a sneezing fit three metres away from you? 119 Why do we know so little about our ancestors? 147 Did apes have the same flu as we do? 119 are we descendants of lucy? 148 why does a cow look more like a whale than a horse? 120 How can you tell from a skull if an animal walked upright? 149 How come a butterfly looks so much like a bird? 121 Why is walking upright so important? 149 Can a praying mantis play the violin? 121 Why are we so smart and they’re not? 149 and what else happened to the fish in us? 122 can anthropoid apes become just as smart as we are? 150 Is a sandpiper a distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex? 123 What sorts of fossils have been found? 151 Mammals don’t lay eggs, right? 123 Why do we know so little despite all the fossils we have? 151 what wiped out the dinosaurs? 124 have scientists found eve? 152 Why don’t humans hatch from eggs? 124 Do you have Neanderthal blood? 152 How deadly can a meteorite be? 125 Did Eve actually exist? 153 From mouse to man? 125 What will our great-grandchildren look like down the line? 153 SECTION 10: HAS THE STORY OF EVOLUTION REALLY BEEN PROVEN? 127 is there alien life? and what does it look like? 154 evolution: sense or nonsense? 128 Why would aliens most likely be meat-eaters? 155 Do all scientists believe in evolution? 129 Will aliens live to be ten thousand years old? 155 ‘the theory of evolution is a theory. therefore evolution is not AND IN CLOSING… 156 a proven fact’ 130 Can you tell from just looking at someone’s brain if they’re religious? 157 Which animal will survive the longest on earth? 131 Are scientists not telling us everything? Why isn’t Tiktaalik good enough evidence for some people? 131 INDEX 158 Are there really werewolves and ostrich people? 132 Are you a descendant of Genghis Khan? 132 How can you yourself see evolution at work? 133 Can a lizard species change within just thirty-six years? 134 What boring experiment took twenty years? 134 And was that experiment really worth it? 135 What do bacteria tell us about the theory of evolution? 135 ‘nature is such a perfect wonder, it must have been created by a god’ 136 For whom do sheep die a slow and painful death? 137

8 — — 9 EFORE WE REALLY GET STARTED, hundred billion brain cells and there are trillions of B THERE’S THIS… bacteria in your body. But can you actually grasp how PREFACE big these numbers really are? You’ll sometimes come across huge numbers in this book. Numbers that are so immense that it’s impos- The number table below translates these figures into sible to even imagine how immense they actually are. time, to give you some understanding of what all or approximately ten billion years an amazingly hot, hissing and bubbling planet rotated in peace For instance, one of the heroes in this book, Tiktaa- these millions, billions and trillions exactly mean. Faround the sun. Then something strange happened. In the midst of all that hissing and gurgling, life lik, lived around 370 million years ago. You have one originated. Just like that. Though nobody knows exactly how. But we do know what happened next. All kinds of microscopically small matter covered the planet in purple, yellow and white slimy blobs. This li- ving slime thrived in lukewarm pools of mud, at the edge of seas or in small cavities in the hardened lava of volcanoes. It must have stunk something awful: like sulphur and rotten eggs, stinky farts and smelly socks. 1000 (thousand) seconds equals 16 minutes and 40 But other living things slowly developed from that slime. Worms and snails, fungi and algae. And since that seconds. time long ago, the surface of our planet – which we call the Earth – has teemed with all sorts of life 10.000 (ten thousand) seconds equals 2 hours, 46 minutes Four billion years after the first life appeared in the form of bacteria, people were running around on this and 40 seconds. planet. People are animals, but a very unique sort: they’re the only animals with the ability to think about difficult questions: Which socks should I wear today? What will the weather be like tomorrow? Why is water 100.000 (hundred thousand) secondes equals 1 day, 3 hours so wet? How did life originate? And all the animals and plants: how did they come to exist? And what about and 47 minutes. people: where did they come from? It’s usually children who ask questions like these (adults are more in- clined to think, yeah right…). Children are curious about stuff; they want to know everything. But lucky for 1.000.000 (one million) seconds equals 11 days, 13 hours us, there are also adults who are curious about stuff. They study to be scientists and researchers and try to fi- and 47 minutes. gure out why everything is the way it is. A physicist can explain why water is wet. A biologist can tell you why a worm is alive and a stone isn’t, or what makes farts stink. And a palaeontologist can figure out exactly how 1.000.000.000 (one billion) seconds equals 31 years and 8 months. big the back foot of Tyrannosaurus rex was. This is why we understand more and more about the world around us. We now know precisely how old the universe is and also how old the earth is, how animals and plants came into existence over the course of millions of years and why the cow is a distant cousin of the whale – 1.000.000.000.000 (one trillion) seconds equals 31.710 years. and not of the horse.

But then there’s explaining it all: researchers are really good at investigating difficult sorts of things, but 1.000.000.000.000.000 (one quadrillion) seconds equals 31.710.000 years. explaining something difficult is a whole other story. For that you need journalists or writers: somebody like Jan Paul Schutten, who has a gift for explaining the most complicated stuff. And he describes so many complicated things in this book that perhaps you’ll have to read it a few more times before you understand 1.000.000.000.000.000.000 (one quintillion) seconds equals… an awful long everything. But, what’s even more important, he also explains in this book that there are things we still time. Especially when you can’t reach that itching don’t know. We still don’t completely understand how life arose. Was it something spontaneous? Did it spot on your back. come whooshing to earth from outer space? Or perhaps it was created by a god? So there are still uncertain- ties about a bunch of scientific issues. But that’s exactly what makes science such fun: that you can continue to be curious about things and can always think up new questions to ask. What is beyond the end of the uni- verse? How many years will the sun keep shining? If birds are actually dinosaurs, then are dinosaurs really extinct? Where on the earth did the first modern human being live? And last but not least: do you think this book is as much fun as I do?

Jelle Reumer, director Het Natuurhistorisch, Rotterdam

10 — — 11 DEEL 1

— section 1 —

WONDERS, BRAIN TWISTERS, MYSTERIES AND YOU — section 1 — • wonders, braintwisters, mysteries and you •

HAT CAN A SLIPPER ANIMALCULE DO WHY DOES THE PARAMECIUM (SLIPPER WTHAT THE SMARTEST ROBOT CAN’T? ) DESERVE A STANDING OVATION? ANIMALCULE Even if slipper animalcule can’t do as much as Pro- fessor Scharfe’s robot, it can do one thing a machine will never be able to do – die. Of course, a robot et’s rise to our feet and give slipper animalcule a round of applause! Come again?! You heard me, for the might break down, but that’s completely different. Lparamecium – known to his friends as slipper animalcule – a creature smaller than the dot on this i. Something that’s broken can usually be repaired. I suppose you have your reasons for clapping? Is this creature really so special? Yes, a paramecium deserves a thunder- But it’s an entirely different story to breathe life into ous round of applause simply because it’s alive. That’s more of an accomplishment than you think! And I’ll something when it’s dead. Life is special, even if tell you why. trillions of creatures have already lived on the earth by now.

So a paramecium is alive and a robot isn’t – that’s the biggest difference. But they also share similari- ties. One of these is that they are both made of dead things. Everything you see – and even everything you don’t see – is composed of atoms. These are very small building blocks from which everything in the universe is made. From paramecia to trees, stars, planets, hats, your favourite uncle, cucumbers, the smelly socks of Joey Spark from Regal Park, clouds, cream puffs and robots. Yes, even Lady Gaga is made of atoms. And these atoms are all ‘dead as a door- nail’: as dead as a brick, a lump of clay or a piece of Lego. Then how is it possible that life arose from all these dead atoms? How did life on earth origi- nate? Where did paramecia come from? Where do we come from? Might there be life other places in the universe? You’ll find the answers to these and many more questions in this book!

A Danish professor named Henrik Scharfe has built a robot that looks exactly like him. When the profes- sor and his robot are together, you have to look twice before you can tell which one is the man and which the machine. At this moment, the robot still can’t do very much. He moves a little and looks like his crea- tor’s twin brother. But that’s about it. He can’t even talk. Still, I’ll eat my hat if one day there isn’t a robot that not only looks exactly like a human being, but gives intelligent answers to your questions and can even play football with you. Within thirty years, we’ll probably have accumulated enough knowledge to make just such a robot. But making a paramecium? That’s a thousand times harder.

Our tiny friend slipper animalcule also can’t do very much. It swims a bit: does the breast stroke with its tiny hairs. It likes to drink dirty ditch water and eat the bacteria it finds there. Later it pees out that water again – well, peeing… it’s more like sweating. It can have sex with another slipper animalcule. It can divide itself, resulting in two creatures. And furthermore, it can, uh… do little of anything.

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HAT WOULD BE SADDER HAT FUNCTIONS BETTER THE BLACK MONSTER WTHAN DYING? WTHAN NATURE? AND DEATH Just imagine what would happen if no fish at all Not even the smartest people in the world would be would die. Now that would be sad! able to invent something that functions better than A fish will easily spawn about a hundred eggs every nature. Indeed, worse still, when people interfere here are many bacteria and they come in all shapes and sizes. There even exist some luminous bacteria! year, which would produce a hundred fish. Should with animals and plants, they make a mess of it. In TSome predator fish in the sea could not exist without those bacteria. For example, the deep sea an- those fish produce their offspring, then that would gardens, animal parks and aquariums the staff has gling fish. They are monstrous fish, with a thorn on top of their heads, and at the top of the thorn there is a mean a hundred times one hundred: ten thousand. to work very hard to keep everything healthy and small pocket with luminous bacteria, almost like a wobbling little lantern. This would be of no use in clear And if they all produce offspring, there will be a alive: animals must be fed, plants must be watered, shallow waters, but these fish live way down under the sea level. So far down that even the sunlight cannot million. And that in only three years! After another weeds must be pulled out, this work just keeps go- penetrate the darkness. It is darker than a moonless night in an abandoned coal-pit, but those little lights, year there would be ten billion fish and after another ing on and on. In the woods, the rain forests and the they can be seen down there. The angling fish happily swim along, waving their lights. And that is how they year there would be hmm…well…a lot more. Within oceans everything takes care of itself. Day in day out. attract all kinds of inquisitive little fish. However, these little fish will never know what kind of light they are ten years there would be so many fish that the whole During the summer, autumn, winter and spring. The attracted to, because, as soon as they come close to the open mouth of the fish, those angling fish will suck planet would be covered with a layer of fish and fish way nature works is a real miracle. them straight into their stomach at an amazing speed. eggs several meters high. Of course that would be Sad? Yes. But the same applies to all game (that’s how animals, eaten by other animals are called). impossible.

Therefore it is good that animals will eventually die. At times it is because of old age, just as it happens to people. But there are no walking frames for fish, no dentures, nor are there homes for the elderly. There- fore, an early death because of beasts of prey may be better than a rickety life. Looking at it that way, na- ture works perfectly: slipper animalcule will eat bac- teria, young and small fish will eat slipper animal- cule, fish of prey will eat small fish, and so on. That is the way animals maintain the balance and there will never be long periods when there are too many animals of one particular species. It has worked that way for hundreds of millions of years. Also, if nature were different, neither you not I would ever have existed. One would almost shout out “Long live nature!”

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JUST ONE MORE MIRACLE

ust one more miracle and then we will really start this book. We are, all of us, a miracle. You, me, Joey ers turned into bone; that hardly visible little meat cided which creatures the earth needed and then said JSpark from Regal Park, and furthermore everything and everyone that has ever been born. But let us first ball became a small human being. All of a sudden their names. And as soon as he had spoken those talk about you. How old are you? Somewhere around ten or twelve years old? Whatever your age, we should you had a front, back, upper and lower part. names the creatures existed. The Mayas believed actually add another few decades. Because one minute fraction of you existed even before you mother was After three weeks you were no bigger than a grain of that all life on earth was created by the gods Tepeu lying in her cradle! rice. But all the same you had reached a milestone: and Gucumatz. They thought of all the animals and The fact of the matter is that you have come from one of your mother’s egg-cells. And this cell was already in your heart started to beat for the first time! And if plants, and they were convinced they had done well. her body for several weeks before she was born. About nine months before you were born this cell was fer- all goes well, it will continue to beat for more or The gods in fact wanted some appreciation for their tilized by one of your father’s sperm cells. Officially, you existed as of that moment – even if you were at that less 800 million times. One week later, little by lit- creation. Therefore they created people who could time nothing but one single cell. tle, small stumps appeared, which would grow into honour their creation. The Christians, Jewish and Is- arms and legs. Gradually everything else started to lamic believe that there is only one god that has cre- grow. When you were twelve weeks old you almost ated it all, and all that in six days. Also in their belief looked like a real baby. However, you were still too the last creatures were people: Adam and Eve. And small to be able to live outside your mother’s womb. there are many, many other stories of the Creation. Especially the brain needed to grow. During that growing process about 8000 brain cells per second HO CAN PROVE HOW LIFE HAS COME were added. Therefore, by the time you were born, WINTO BEING? in comparison to the rest of your body, your head seemed to be too big. In bygone days very few people on earth doubted that all living animals, trees and plants had been created OW WHO HAS BEEN ABLE TO CREATE by the gods. Still there were all those nations and NNATURE SO PERFECT? races with their own religions and their own stories of the Creation, clearly not agreeing with the oth- After about nine months the time had come: you ers. The stories were poles apart. And that is still the were born. You were complete. Ready. Perfect. Out case. You ask tens of persons, each of them believing of this one cell a little human being was created. in their own religion, how life on earth was created, But how did this cell know that it had to multiply? and you will get just as many different replies. How did some of the cells know that they had to become a heart, a lung, a right nostril or a left little But who is right? Not one of the various religions finger? Can that be anything but a real miracle? And have proof of their story of the Creation. There- this does not only apply to you, it applies to all liv- fore, scientists decided to investigate the whys and ing things. Because how come that all animals and wherefores of life on earth and elsewhere. And that plants came into being just like that? Who created is what this book is about. How was life created nature so perfect? according to them? How did they find out all their OW DID YOU COME INTO BEING? This continued for days on end. You were a micro- knowledge and information? And, at least as impor- H scopic little meat ball of dividing cells. Each and every race and tribe in the world have asked tant as all that: Are the scientists able to really prove After about fourteen days again something very this same question. And they all came up with the their interpretation? And then it happened. The cell divided and thereby special occurred. The cells did not just divide, they same answer: it must have been devised and struc- multiplied. And again. And once again. Two cells seemed to plan something special. Some of the cells tured by a god. The Egyptians, for example, thought became 4, eight, sixteen, thirty-two cells and so on. became your heart, others created the brain and oth- that all was created thanks to the god Ptah. He de-

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